My dear boy
We are all
Born one thing
Then become another
Like the acorn
Begins as something
Round and hard
Then with time
Becomes something majestic
Let yourself be
Protected right now
And over time
Your canopy spreads
Then withstanding anything
Bringing eventual shade
To everything else
And just then
Like a breeze
Making land fall
Off some coast
You’re damp moistness
Lingered on cheeks
It’s light saltiness
Brought brief surprise
And I felt
It tickle lips
And then realized
In my half-sleep
That this breeze
Was you laying
Next to me
Yes the mountain
Is so majestic
And the ocean
So vast but
It’s the things
Contained there within
That makes beauty
The diamonds forged
And fish that
Sparkle and swim
Just as you
It’s not your
Body that caught
Me it’s what’s
Kept deep inside
That tickles me
And I remember
That night in
The tent made
Of blankets and
Sheets we were
Explorers in the
Jungles off borabora
We pretended then
Creating lions tigers
And creepy crawling
Things with hands
And fingers and
Flashlights eating beans
And hot dogs
Just as sleep
Took hold I
Felt your fingers
Poke and tickle
Making me squeal
It’s like that
This morning many
Many years later
Us still adventurers
And there it
Came like a
Snowball square on
The chin surprising
Me yet making
Me laugh hard
Like a prankster
Around a blind
Corner frightening me
Yet joking this
Thing you said
And more after
Once settled in
I now understand
Just why simply
Why I liked
You you showed
Interest and kindness
Like the outstretched
Hand of grandma
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 